


Hiding

by OnlyHalfSerious



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Bottling feelings, But also little happy endings, Depression, Eating Disorders, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff and Angst, I Was Drunk When I Wrote This, I like to give characters problems, no joke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-13 00:37:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10502796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnlyHalfSerious/pseuds/OnlyHalfSerious
Summary: Trini still has trouble showing her emotions. Kimberly tries to help but realizes she should come clean about some things too.I added to this, it has 2 chapters. the second is 500% longer than the first by the way....





	1. 1 am

**Author's Note:**

> This was a tiny one-shot I wrote as a character study for another book I'm working on, but I noticed it worked for these adorable people. I modified it a little to fit better, but yeah. Enjoy, I hope!

“Trini? You home? Jason said you were home,” Kimberly said from the window where she peaked in. As much as she tried to keep it quiet, Kim heard a small sniffle from the girl she thought she might be in love with. She climbed inside and closed the window behind her quietly. She walked towards the sound, there alone in the dark closet she found her. Her dark hair had been visibly tugged on. Her jeans had been spilled on and her hand was around the neck of a mostly-empty glass bottle. As Kim got closer, Trini hid her face, not realizing the tears could be seen on her chin.

  
Kimberly knelt in front of her. She didn’t say anything at first, she’d seen this before to a certain degree, but never like this. They both joked about their mental health, but maybe Trini was doing the same thing as her. Joking about something more serious than she wanted to acknowledge. She slowly reached up and ran her hand under her chin, wiping off the tear drops. This only made more show up.

  
Kimberly couldn’t explain why after only a month of knowing each other she felt so strongly for this girl crying before her. She watched her cry, smoothing her hair down, and running her hand over her arm, never saying a word. She reached down for the bottle, rubbing her thumb over the tightly gripped hand until it let go. Kimberly got up heading back to the window. She emptied the bottle outside and put the bottle in the recycling bin. When she came back in, she found Trini on her side. Knees curled up to her chest and her hands on her face.

Kimberly swallowed slowly. She wasn’t sure how to make her feel better. She wasn’t even sure how much she’d drank or how long she’d been there. Alone and in the dark. Maybe her whole life.

  
“Trini?” she said softly. Trini made an attempt to stop crying. She was the type. A bottler, a hider. Her emotions weren’t for anyone to see or be bothered by. She was a brown woman. She didn’t have the luxury of sympathy from tears. Kimberly knew she didn’t want to been seen crying. They were similar in the way. They both cried in darkness. They both cried in silence. Trini with liquids. Kimberly with solids.

  
Kim sat in front of her then laid down. She touched Trini’s wrists, trying to pull them away from her face. After five minutes of just holding her wrists, a physical promise not to leave, Trini’s hands moved away from her face. She looked down for a few minutes before finally looking at the girl laying in front of her. Her brown eyes were rimmed with red, making them even more intense. Kimberly smiled softly and kissed her on the cheek. Trini tried hard not to cry again, making her face scrunch up. Kimberly hugged her, pulling her face into her shoulder. Soon she felt her shoulder become wet and Trini shook in her arms.

  
They stayed there a while, neither sure exactly how long. When Trini started having trouble with open eyes, Kimberly pulled her to her bed and helped her drink water from that fateful silver water bottle. Soon after, Kimberly lay there, next to a sleeping Trini with tear streaks in all directions on her face. She ran her hand over Trini's dark hair, trying hard to avoid the words waiting to leap from her tongue. With a certainty that the yellow ranger was asleep, the words dove out. “I love you.”


	2. Morning Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls wake up in Trini's bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I don't know if only 2 people wanted more of this, but here it is! Sorry I took so long, I've been busy and my dep/anx has been up and I'm realizing I have a thing for my straight friend so yeah. But! It's here now, so hope you like it!

Kim woke up first. The first thing she noticed was a sensation on her forehead. When she opened here eyes she realized her forehead was touching Trini’s. This was the closest she’d ever been with the girl in the morning. Nights were a different story. One that didn’t really get mentioned. 

Trini started to stir and Kim backed up, an anxiety over getting caught welling up in her throat. Trini groaned a bit before opening her eyes.

“You again,” Trini said with a little smile. They’d done this before, woken up in each other’s bed from an inebriated night before. It was the same routine. They would wake up acting like they didn’t remember how they got there. Like they didn’t remember what they did. But Kimberly didn’t want to play, not with something so serious.

“Trini,” she said, concern evident on her face. “What happened?”

Trini looked away and pulled her hood over her face. “I don’t know,” she said softly.

“Has it happened before?”

Trini shrugged, still in hidden. “I don’t mean to.”

Kim sighed softly. She watched her friend retreating into her own world. “You can talk to me,” Kim whispers.

There was too much to say and Trini didn’t know where to even start. Should she start where she always did? Should she get into her home life? Should she go deeper? Could she even? She didn’t know if she even had the words for what she was feeling. Could she even identify what was happening to her when it never looked the same? She peaked out and saw Kim look at her, eyes worried. “I probably look pathetic now, don’t I?”

“Trini, no,” Kim said, pulling Trini’s hood off gently and running her fingers over the shorter girl’s cheeks. “I don’t think that.” She realized what she’d done and pulled her hands back. “I don’t because I sort of understand.” 

Trini looks at her. 

Kim had never said the words out loud. She’d always been the reflective kind of person, one who knew when her problems were becoming too big and needed to be dealt with. But that didn’t mean she often went to ask people for help. Then that night, when Zack and Billie and Trini just opened up, she decided she wanted to, but somewhere low risk, so she went to Jason. But this wasn’t Jason, this was Trini a friend she felt so much for, whose opinion she cared for greatly. She swallowed hard before finally saying it with eyes closed, “I used to struggle with an eating disorder. And I hid it from everyone.”

Trini looks at the girl she had always seen as perfect. She wasn’t sure what to ask so she asked the question always on her mind about Kimberly Hart. “Are you okay?”

Kim opened her eyes and didn’t see judgment or pity on the other girls face. It was like a normal I’ll-cut-a-bitch Trini, but it was clear, she’d do it for Kim. That made Kimberly smile.“I’m better. I don’t know if the anxiety ever really goes away, but I manage. I try not to worry about being someone's expectation of me.” 

“What do you mean?”

“Someone asked me once why I didn’t have a body like Jasmin from Aladdin,” Kim said, chuckling at the memory.

Trini rolled her eyes. “She’s not even Indian.”

“That’s what I said,” Kim laughed. Trini laughed along with her. “So I try to remind myself that I don’t need to fit people’s sometimes ridiculous expectations of me. No matter what they’re based in.”

Trini nodded then looked down. “How do you do that? Asking for a friend.”

Kim brushed Trini’s hair to the side. “Long talks in front of the mirror. Notes and reminders and stuff.” 

Trini shrugged, a skeptical tug on her attempted smile. Kimberly looked at the shorter girl in front of her. The little grumpy fireball she felt so much admiration for. The girl reminded her of lava, maybe she kept that rock wall up to protect others from burns. Kim would need to remind her that she was strong enough to take some heat. She was a fucking Power Ranger after all.

“I can remind you. You know until you believe it and can do it for yourself and stuff,” Kim offered. “I’ll be your training wheels.”

Trini chuckled. “Never had training wheels,” Trini said with her little come-at-me smirk.

Kimberly laughed, “That’s not surprising at all.” 

They lay there both watching the other, both thinking they were alone in doing so. Memories pushed up against Kimberly. Memories of Trini in the dark. Of them together, laughing, dancing in her room. Of them drinking, then forgetting about bottles for something far more delicious. 

Trini watched Kim’s smile, remembering the taste of her lips in spite of herself. She thought pretending it never happened would be easier. Then it just kept happening. Trini swallowed, her fear pushing possibilities away. “What would you say?” she asked.

Kim bit her lip, making Trini inhale sharply. “I would say a few things,” she began. “Being your parents daughter doesn’t mean you have to be their idea of you. You can be yourself.”

Trini bit the inside of her cheek. “What if I don’t know who that is?”

Kim touched Trini’s chin. Trini looked up slowly, hope hidden behind strong fears in her eyes. “You don’t have to know right now. You have time.” We have time. 

Trini’s smile was small, but it shot right through Kim’s heart. Every little smile Trini had ever shown her played in her mind, from the one on the cliff to the one she was looking at now. Then came every laugh, ringing in her ear, leaving a buzzing in her stomach. Only the yellow ranger made her feel like she had bees in her stomach, what a sweet honey they left behind. Her hand was still on the shorter girls chin. She couldn’t help running a finger along her jaw and hearing her breath go choppy for a second. The words from last night crawled up Kimberly’s throat. She swallowed them, they weren’t for today. We have time.

“You know what else I’d tell you?” Kim whispered. “I’d tell you that you’re someone I admire and someone who makes me want to be better. You’re someone who I feel completely comfortable around. You are caring in your way--”

At this Trini chuckled, accidentally freeing a tear.

“You are strong and fierce and I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I never met you.” Kim saw Trini’s eyes shift from hers to her lips. “And I never want to know what a day without you feels like.”

Trini’s lips crashed onto hers. Warmth spread over her as she felt Trini’s arms wrap around her waist. The same familiar warmth spread through Kimberly. The warmth threatened to burn hotter, but Kimberly pushed it down and kept her touches gentle, brushing her thumbs over Trini’s cheeks, brushing her nose over the other girl’s, hoping to transmit a message: I’m not leaving. 

Trini pulled back from the kiss and hid her face in Kim’s shoulder. She ran her hands up Kim’s back, surprising herself when she pulled her close instead of away. Kim wrapped her arms around Trini and kissed her hair and her forehead. 

“I can’t drag you into my mess,” Trini said, her words muffled.

“Yes, you can,” Kimberly said. “You gotta figure yourself out, and honestly I do too. I just wanna know if you wanna try figuring it out together.”

Trini looked up at Kim who was giving her a supportive smile. “You’d really wanna...” Trini couldn’t find the words for what they could become. “What would we even call this?”

Kim kissed her softly. “We can call it figuring things out?”

Trini kissed her back. “We got time right?”

“Yeah.” We got time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep that's all folks! Also, this means I can work on Stuck in My Head which had been on the back burner til this could get finished. Comments are cool, I like knowing what you think!


End file.
